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European Journal of Applied Sciences – Vol. 10, No. 5
Publication Date: October 25, 2022
DOI:10.14738/aivp.105.13149. Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022). Strategic Management of Societal Practices on the Environment for Peaceful and Harmonious
Development of a Nation: The Role of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes Affect Such a Society? European
Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(5). 191-206.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Strategic Management of Societal Practices on the Environment
for Peaceful and Harmonious Development of a Nation: The Role
of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes
Affect Such a Society?
Francis Kwadade-Cudjoe
Senior Lecturer, Knutsford University College
Accra and Adjunct Lecturer, Regional Maritime University
Tema, Ghana
ABSTRACT
Unions and professional associations within organizations must cooperate and
work assiduously for organizations to execute operations smoothly to achieve their
mandates. Teams comprising union, professional association and managers of the
organization should work together peacefully; a sine qua non for organizations to
succeed and achieve corporate goals. Societal norms and cultures within the
environment, especially where the multi-national companies operate should be
monitored for peace and harmony to exist. Governments that are evil should not be
allowed to dictate how the foreign company’s policy should be, regarding the
entrepreneur’s new environment. Apart from the organization given employment
to the citizenry in the new environment, the entrepreneur also stands to gain some
profits from his/her endeavours, so it is a win-win situation. The environment
should be well maintained, especially with the introduction of green technology -
deep leaning and artificial intelligence – as technological panacea; this would
hopefully ward off climate change, greenhouse emissions of gases and carbon
footprint, for the sustenance of the environment for future generation to live and
work healthily.
Key words: Unions, professional associations, teams, cooperation, society, environment,
culture, technology, organization and government.
INTRODUCTION
The environment within which business/organization takes place (and thrive) is very
important. This environment is very broad and consists of both the internal and external parts.
Similarly, the society within the environment should be humane, cordial and co-operative to
enable business/organization flourish.
Hornby (2001) describes environment as the natural world which provides habitation for
human beings, animals and plants and the surroundings in which these animate objects survive.
It is this natural world which provides people the opportunity to put their imaginations/ideas
together to create businesses, and therefore, earn their living.
According to CFI Team (2021), the McKinsey and Company, a management consulting group
developed the ‘7s’ conceptual framework which has become a popular tool for examining and
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assessing the internal environment of organization to know how effectiveness/efficiency could
be achieved amongst the seven (7) key elements. Kenton (2021) added that the McKinsey tool
looks at the seven (7)internal factors of an organization to determine whether the organization
has the structural support to be successful. In addition, Kenton (2021) mentioned that the
tool/model consists of a mixture of hard and soft elements, which are unblemished and
influenced by management, and foggier and influenced by corporate culture, respectively.
The hard elements are:
i. Structure
ii. Strategy, and
iii. Systems.
The soft elements are:
i. shared values
ii. skills
iii. style, and
iv. staff (CFI Team, 2021; Kenton, 2021).
Both CFI Team (2021) and Kenton (2021) described the seven (7) elements or ‘7s’ as follows:
i. Structure – the appropriate configuration, chain of command, accountability relationship,
management composition or responsibilities of workers (hierarchical levels – flat/tall) of the
organization that enables production to fit to its external environment, thereby facilitating the
implementation of its strategy.
ii. Strategy – this has a bearing on the vision and mission of the business/organization to
formulate a long-term plan to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. It is also the
expression of intent to achieving the vision and the strategic goals of the business. Normally,
the structure would have to serve the interest of the strategy.
iii. Systems – these are the infrastructure of formal and informal procedures, workflow and
chain of decision-making that establish the standard operations of an organization on daily
basis, and may include the resources of the business; example, financial systems, budgetary
systems and reporting systems.
iv. Shared Values – the standards of guiding principles of the organization; example, the
organizational beliefs, values, norms, behaviour and aspirations of management and entire
staff.
v. Skills – the distinctive talents, capabilities and core competencies of key personnel and the
things the organization as a whole does well; example, research and development, customer
care and product management to enable it achieve its goals and objectives.
vi. Style – how key managers act and interact with staff by following a code of conduct and
leading the organization to influence performance, productivity and corporate culture in
achieving the organizational goals. Different managers behave differently; example, some are
analytical and others are task-centred or people-focused.
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Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022). Strategic Management of Societal Practices on the Environment for Peaceful and Harmonious Development of a Nation:
The Role of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes Affect Such a Society? European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(5). 191-206.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.105.13149
vii. Staff – the skills, expertise, characteristics, manner of work and the nature of people- management-approach adopted by the organization in executing its operations; example,
training, management development and motivational methods (CFI Team, 2021; Kenton,
2021).
The above tool would enable anyone who has the intention of assessing and knowing the
internal workings of any organization to give the direction and approach to adopt to
comprehend the workings of the business.
Furthermore, the external environment of the organization is also important, as this is what the
organization interacts with. Again, one popular conceptual framework illustrated by Peterdy
(2022) for assessing the external environment of the organization is ‘PESTEL’, an acronym that
enables the business to be explored externally.
Peterdy (2022) defined ‘PESTEL’ as a strategic framework commonly used by the organization
to evaluate its external environment in which the firm operates. He added that initially it was
referred as ‘PEST’ analysis, without the ‘EL’.
Kenton (2022) also mentioned about ‘PEST’ and defined it as a management tool which an
organization uses to assess the major external influences of its operation in order to become
more competitive in the market.
Peterdy (2022) stated that the acronym ‘PESTEL’ stands for:
i. Political,
ii. Economic,
iii. Socio-Cultural,
iv. Technology,
v. Environmental, and
vi. Legal.
According to Peterdy (2022) and Kenton (2022), the acronym ‘PEST’ is explained as follows:
i. Political – the factors driven by government actions and policies, changes in legislation, the
political structures within the environment the organization operates; example, property- owned democracy, corporate taxation, employment laws, antitrust and anti-competition issues,
social democracy, etc.
ii. Economic – the financial activities and indexes pertaining to the environment under
consideration; example, wholesale or retail trading by people, the gross domestic product
(GDP), supply and demand, economic growth, recession, inflation and exchange rates of the
environment the organization operates.
iii. Socio-Cultural – the modifications in the ways stakeholders consider life and leisure, the
societal cultural practices of the environment under consideration; example, the values, beliefs,
behaviour, demographic consideration, cultural attitudes for working conditions, lifestyle
trends and religion.
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iv. Technology – the hi-tech practices and its changing rapidity, the impact of technology
within the environment under scrutiny and government spending on technology research;
example, automation, technology infrastructure, cyber security, scale of technology disruption,
communication gadgets and how data/information is manipulated (or processed).
Peterdy (2022) further explained ‘EL’ in PESTEL as follows:
v. Environmental (or Ethical) – the ecological (green) issues of social responsibility of the
inhabitants and especially, corporate organizations’ assistance to the environment (or
community); example, eradication of pollution and cleanliness of the environment, fresh water
contamination, carbon footprint, climate change impacts, extreme weather events and ethical
considerations of the people living within the environment under consideration - in terms of
moral laws and ethical issues pertaining to the area.
vi. Legal – the legitimate issues from changes to the regulatory and the total environment under
consideration; examples, industry regulation, licenses and permits to operate, employment and
consumer laws, protection of intellectual property, court system, formation and registration of
businesses, enforcement of laws and interventions justified within the various markets in the
environment.
The above explanation analyzes the internal and external environments of the
business/organization, and how the various parameters of the conceptual frameworks help in
the understanding of the environment that the business/organization operates.
THE SOCIETY & CULTURE WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT
Society is defined by Hornby (2001) as an aggregate of people living together in an ordered
community and share the same customs, laws, and join together for a particular purpose. Such
people in the community would have the same culture to enable them to live together
peacefully.
Daft (2003) defined culture as the set of key values, beliefs, behaviours, understandings and
norms that members of an organization or citizenry of a nation share. According to Arora
(2016), culture is now a commodity, where popular books, films, music and artifacts have
international markets, and are moved across the globe; thanks to organizations, such as
Amazon, eBay and e-commerce shops. Hofstede (2011) also described culture as the aggregate
encoding of the mind which distinguishes a group of people from others; within each group of
people, there are variety of members/individuals.
In the last few years, the media owners of the West have shown interest and moved into the
developing countries to introduce their products, and similarly learn about the products from
the developing countries (Arora, 2016). There is the reality that cultural globalization has been
accelerated by the information revolution, such as the global spread of satellite communication,
telecommunication networks, information and communication technology (ICT) and the
Internet; this global flow of ideas, knowledge and values is likely to smooth out cultural
differences between nations, regions and individuals for better conduction of business (De Wit
& Meyer, 2004; Daft, 2003; Arora, 2016).
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Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022). Strategic Management of Societal Practices on the Environment for Peaceful and Harmonious Development of a Nation:
The Role of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes Affect Such a Society? European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(5). 191-206.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.105.13149
IMPACT OF HUMAN AND ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Narveson (n.d.) mentioned the effects of human and organizational activities on the natural
environment these days, and how the decision to the proper basis of this concern affects
business quite crucially. Specifically, Narveson (n.d.) distinguished between 2 theoretical
orientations, which are:
a. Anthropocentric orientation – this gives the reason why we should be concerned about the
environment, as it is bad for us if we do not, and good for us if we are concerned about it. But
implications of the decision chosen depend on what we want from nature. According to
Narveson (n.d.), human beings have several distinguishable interests for the environment,
including:
i. using it in various ways; example, as source of raw materials
ii. enjoy looking at it
iii. playing in and with it
iv. keeping it from harming us
b. Deep Environmentalist orientation - contrasting the anthropocentric orientation is the
concern for the environment in the interest of the environment itself. Human beings should
care about trees for the sake of trees - not because they are nice to look at and providing shade
and lumber, but because they have some sort of dignity and moral status, as their right. The
problem with nature is that everything is fundamentally natural; everything is part of the world
for dwelling and subject to the laws of nature, including the majestic elm trees, noxious swamps,
poisonous insects and snakes, volcanoes and oil spills. Unfortunately, garbage, asphalt, etc. that
deep environmentalists hate, are just part of the universe (Narveson, n.d.)
Alexander (2020) mentioned eleven (11) ways humans impact the environment and lamented
that humans have become dependent on indulgences that affect the environment, such as,
vehicles, houses and technological machines (example, computer system and electronic
phones). He declared, however that humans do not care how their love for these luxuries affect
the environment, to the extent that non-degradable objects, such as, metallic, plastic and rubber
goods are disposed of any how in the environment, including the ocean. Eight (8) of the eleven
(11) impacts Alexander (2020) named on the environment are described as follows:
i. overpopulation: survival has led to re-population and the decrease in mortality rate also led
to over-population, as medicine has improved keeping humans alive for much longer period.
Over-population has led to severe degradation of the environment. Humans require a lot of
space for farmland and industries, which also take up tons of space.
ii. deforestation: the explosive population growth has led to the clearing of forest for space to
accommodate humans; this has resulted in damaged ecosystems. An estimated 18m acres of
trees are cut to make way for new development.
iii. overfishing: pollution is a big threat to all aquatic life and the lead cause for reduced
biodiversity. The few fish left is also overfished and thereby damaging the ocean.
iv. water pollution: there are about 5.25trillion pieces of plastic, metallic and rubber debris in
the ocean. Again, excessive amount of fertilizer finds its way into the ocean through rains,
floods, dumping, thereby destroying the largest available oxygen for use.
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v. global warming: this is the greatest cause of impact on the environment. Largely, this cause
originates through CO2 levels from respiratory to more detrimental causes like burning fossil
fuels and deforestation; humans consistently increase CO2 levels globally. The CO2 emissions
has therefore, contributed to the increasing planet’s average temperature by almost a whole
degree. The increase temperature melts the arctic land ice and glaciers, which causes the ocean
levels to rise at a rate of 3.42mm annually and allowing water to absorb more heat and causes
the oceans to rise.
vi. climate change: climate change is closely connected to the development of technology and
industry. As global temperature increases, the earth’s weather pattern drastically changes. The
affected weather pattern brings more intense hurricanes in both size and frequency with more
intense and prolonged droughts.
vii. genetic modification: this has been a major contributor to the survival of humans, as
selected crops are bred with DNA directed and implanted into them in order to yield more for
survival during the colder temperatures.
viii. ozone depletion: the ozone layer has been removed (through our action and in-action),
thereby allowing the absorption of harmful UV rays which is detrimental to the health of all
walks of life (Alexander, 2020).
The just completed COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference at Glasgow issued a final
declaration to keep alive the ambition of curtailing global temperature increases to not go
beyond 1.5oC by 2100 (Penketh, 2021). This is laudable and it is expected the ambition will be
achieved to prevent the destruction of the environment.
STAFF AND PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS WITHIN THE ENVIRONMENT
Within the business/organization that operates in the environment are the Unions, which are
dominated by junior and shop floor workers for negotiating for better salaries and conditions
of service, and the professional associations, who have intellectual training. Though some
professional/senior associations form Unions, they are always in minority as compared to the
junior workers, since they are intellectuals, highly trained and formally recognized in the
society (Narveson, n.d.), and could easily team up with top management to run organizations.
Professional staff and members within corporate organizations, who form Unions, always and
normally might be having problems with top management and board members and therefore,
form Unions to hone their demands for better conditions of service. However, one of the main
functions of professional associations within organizations is to assist top management in
operating effectively and efficiently the organization, as they provide services that have been
acquired through lengthy and predominantly intellectual training (Narveson, n.d.).
Moreover, according to Narveson (n.d.), the professional associations have the special and
moral duty not to render an organization’s account in such a way as to give a totally erroneous
impression of its financial health, as they are capable of doing that without even a single false
statement in their report. The professional is skillful and knowledgeable. S/he also has the duty
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Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022). Strategic Management of Societal Practices on the Environment for Peaceful and Harmonious Development of a Nation:
The Role of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes Affect Such a Society? European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(5). 191-206.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.105.13149
not to kill, example, the medical doctor has the duty not to knowingly administer penicillin to
people who are allergic to it.
Furthermore, Narveson (n.d.) hinted that the professional takes pride in what s/he does and is
interested in promoting professional competence and knowledge. S/he must project an image
of reliability, integrity, and craftsmanship, as part of the professional code is aimed at securing
this image, by announcing to all that the professional is going to exemplify those virtues to the
best of his/her ability.
Business is very vital within the societal environment, as it is through this medium that people
are engaged as employees who offer/sell their labour to owners of businesses for carrying out
manufacturing of products for the market. Furthermore, it is also through business that the
owners invest their capital into (profitable) ventures, and which enable people to be employed
to earn wages to keep the family alive (Narveson, n.d.). The business also enables
people/consumers to exchange their monies for products manufactured by the organization.
WHAT SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS POLICY BE REGARDING DEVELOPING THE
ENVIRONMENT
The environment is very vast and important for human habitation, and all activities that are
carried out by humans, for managing the organization/business. As such, every effort should be
made by all to preserve the environment for posterity. In any case, predecessors and ancestors
who lived earlier had to preserve the environment for human inheritance, working and living
in it. According to Narveson (n.d.), there is a great deal of interest in the effect of activities
humans perform on the natural environment they live in presently; the decision they take just
to properly maintain it affects business carried out on the environment quite crucially.
Narveson (n.d.), particularly distinguishes between two (2) theoretical views humans ascribe
to the environment, as mentioned earlier. These are:
a. the Anthropocentric view - which holds the reason why humans should be concerned
about the environment, as it becomes bad and unsuitable for effective use if not preserve, and
good for use if taken good care of. However, the way humans use the environment and the
implications they get from it depend, of course, on what they want nature to give them.
Some humans are quite uninterested in how nature looks, whereas some have no interest in
playing with it, and people generally have very diverse interests in the products that can be
made from the raw material the environment generates. There is surely even, some diversity
in respect of how people regard the environment from damaging our health, in terms of being
salubrious for some, and fatal for others (Narveson, n.d.).
b. The Deep Environmentalist view - in contrast to the anthropocentric view, this view of
environmentalism is that humans should be concerned for the environment in the interest of
the environment itself. Humans should care about trees for the sake of trees; not because they
look nice by providing, example, shade and lumber, but because they have some sort of dignity
and moral status. The Deep Environmentalist view, according to Narveson (n.d.), is literally
incoherent, as products from the environment are inanimate objects, and as such, do not have
life.
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Everything produced from the environment, as narrated by Narveson (n.d.), is fundamentally
natural, and as it is derived from nature, they are part of the globe humans live in and, therefore,
subject to the laws of nature, including noxious swamps, poisonous insects and snakes,
volcanoes and oil spills. More importantly, it includes everything humans make; for what they
make is natural and so are the processes by which it becomes whatever they are making of it.
The question then to ask is:
‘does the Deep Environmentalist think that natural products are valuable and should be
respected and dignified just because they are part of nature’?
If the answer is yes, Narveson (n.d.) wanted humans to know the fact that absolutely everything
is natural confronts these people with a problem, as it will be impossible for them to coherently
object to any environmental change, or to defend it either, in that they may be guilty of
arbitrarily denying the rights of garbage. After all the things that the Deep Environmentalists
hate, example, garbage and asphalt are just more part of the universe, as the things that they
like.
For example, a forest reserved for research work is no more real a part of the environment than
is a horrid oil spill at sea. If humans clean up the spill, that makes the sea good for the ocean,
but obviously it is bad for the spill, as it would have vanished by itself into the ocean. Oil spills
just love spreading themselves out all over the water, making everything icky and slimy. So why
have not oil slicks rights to live?
The fact is that Deep Environmentalism deprives humans of any sense of guiding choices from
the general idea of respecting the environment for its own sake. This would be true even if that
made any sense at all. However, the trouble is, it does not. The idea that trees care about
anything is not a profound truth, but instead, just too foolish and therefore, useless to be worth
discussing. And if they do not, then why on earth should humans worry about their welfare for
its own sake?
Regarding the future use of the environment, the qualification and importance given by
individuals to what the environment could give them comes, especially, from the general use of
long-term vs. short-term considerations. According to Narveson (n.d.), one person's use of
his/her property on the environment may set in motion processes that will damage the health
of others in about 25 years. Those who are affected directly or indirectly by use of activities by
others on the environment, surely have the right to object to those use. A further source of
differences arises when it is considered strategically, the very long term, when later generations
of persons are the ones who would be affected by the current use of the environment
(Narveson, n.d.).
For example, supposing Ghanaians use up certain finite resources for enjoyment, where they
plan to use a chunk of current and future proceeds from crude oil production to acquire fleet of
expensive airplanes with accessories and leaving almost nothing for the citizenry who will be
around about 80 years from now, is not the best. This is therefore, not right, and it should not
be entertained at all. Do future people have rights against those who are currently alive? If so,
which ones and why? This problem is immensely complicated for the fact that whether there
will be future people depends on what we do now. This brings in the importance of strategic
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Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022). Strategic Management of Societal Practices on the Environment for Peaceful and Harmonious Development of a Nation:
The Role of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes Affect Such a Society? European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(5). 191-206.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.105.13149
planning for the sustainable use of the environment, so that humans who would live in the
future would not be deprived of sound environmental resource.
According to Narveson (n.d.), national products for technological progress, example, use of
fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear power may presumably be finite and non- renewable. How do we share these with future people? A major part of the answer requires
factual input. Research, therefore needs to be extensively conducted to unravel the quantum of
these resources available for nations’ use, so that the environment is not depleted, if it is true
for use by future generation.
Narveson (n.d.), therefore, advocated that various features and resources of the world could be
spoiled, more or less, permanently; and if we care about whether there will be people in the
future, it behoves on us to refrain from doing things that would have those effects. For example,
if one cuts down all the trees as timber for exports, many of them over a thousand years old,
then it will be a very long time before anyone else gets to see them.
What would be the rule or policy then to strategically sustain the resources of the environment,
but at the same time use it harmoniously for development? Certainly not that if a current use of
the environment is likely to cause any possible damage to anybody in the future, then we are to
refrain from that use. That is absurd, since we do not refrain from what will cause damage to
ourselves right now. Rather, the policy would be to research into the reversibility of the effect
in question, its likely cost to future persons as estimated from a comparison with our present
case, and its current utility.
Narveson (n.d.), therefore advised humans to operate on the rule of leaving the world about as
reasonable a place to live in, as it was when they came in, and maybe even, a bit better.
Furthermore, Narveson (n.d.), cautioned humans, particularly, to object to the idea that before
one goes ahead and do anything to any part of nature, one must spend about 100,000 dollars to
making sure that absolutely nothing will happen to it that anybody could ever object to.
The company policy with regard to sound and sustainable environmental resource should
therefore, be as discussed above, and also make sure that the environment is not depleted and
polluted (example, public goods such as rivers, lakes and the forest) without restoring and
preserving it. At least, humans should make the effort to restore the environment to the state
they met it, so that future generations could reap something, and in addition benefit from the
environment during their lifetime.
HOW SHOULD ORGANIZATIONS DEAL WITH EVIL REGIMES?
Though evil regimes are nuisance, every company would do well to exhibit good and fraternal
relations with countries whose environmental ambience they trade in. However, it has never
been smooth sailing with organizations, including foreign ones, who do business in countries
with authoritarian and evil regimes.
According to Narveson (n.d.), among the major questions to be asked in this area of
international business will be that of whether humans ought to do business with evil regimes
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at all, such as, the apartheid regime in pre-1991 South Africa or Zimbabwe or Libya under, the
then, Gadhafi?
In considering such a question, however, Narveson (n.d.), reminded humans on the need to
recognize at the outset an important and salient feature of evil regimes. Narveson (n.d.),
mentioned that these are regimes where the government is evil, wicked and treacherous, but
not that the people in that country are evil.
Erdbrink (2011) elucidated how Colonel Gadhafi of Libya created bunkers at unknown
locations in Libya, where citizens who opposed his regime were kept; this is very evil, and an
evil regime of such magnitude has a life span. Do not be surprised, as the time would soon be
up for that evil regime to end, for the people to have freedom to explore the environment for
their livelihood (Erdbrink, 2011).
Narveson (n.d.), therefore, recommended a policy be enacted for organizations which should
deal with evil regimes to be firm, perfectly all right, morally right and not otherwise, even if its
government is perfectly awful. He added that, even if that government is democratically elected,
but evil, the organization must still exhibit a perfectly right, respect for the customs, morally
and ethically good business practices and relationship with the stakeholders, especially,
customers from that country.
DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENT IF THE ORGANIZATION WAS ALREADY IN THE
COUNTRY WHEN THE AUTHORITARIAN REGIME TOOK POWER OR IF IT WANTS TO DO
BUSINESS WHEN IT IS ALREADY THERE?
Currently, free market and international trade is in vogue, and the system appreciates countries
trading among themselves for the betterment of all nations. Democratic governance is a sine- qua-non for free trade, which helps individuals and organizations to work harder for acquiring
wealth and bettering themselves. This leads to people wanting to do business with people in
other countries, as mentioned by Narveson (n.d.).
However, this is regarded by many as creating and involving special problems. This should not
be so, because after all, a buyer can only be a buyer, and a seller a seller, no matter what colour
s/he has or the part of the world s/he lives. Regarding the question, when should one do
business with foreign organizations? The correct and best answer is, whenever so desired. After
all, that is the standard motive in business, to make a profit (New York Times Magazine, 1970
cited in Porter & Kramer, 2002).
Narveson (n.d.), therefore, gave a hint on Pareto‘s rule of making a profit to produce
improvement, as you and the customer are better off, and nobody is worse off. According to
Pareto, wealth was unevenly distributed, and that approximately 20% of the population had
80% of the wealth, whilst 80% of the population had only 20% of the wealth (Nugent, 2003).
According to Kwadade-Cudjoe (2020), it is so unfortunate that the 20% who controls 80% (vital
few) of the global wealth, is still sustained. The 80% who controls only 20% (trivial many) of
the global income still finds themselves constricted to that position. This is a pathetic situation,
and governments should do well to set up venture capital groups to help start-ups and the
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Kwadade-Cudjoe, F. (2022). Strategic Management of Societal Practices on the Environment for Peaceful and Harmonious Development of a Nation:
The Role of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes Affect Such a Society? European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(5). 191-206.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.105.13149
marginalised in societies to extricate themselves from this mess. Poverty or unfair distribution
of wealth should not be accepted as the order of life, and individuals should do well to come out
of it (Kwadade-Cudjoe, 2020).
However, governments always have various trade policies in force with some being evil, and
thereby propagating evil regimes and evil intentions, and the entrepreneur having little choice
but to work under their aegis. Moreover, these trade laws create a kind of harm which is
normally meted out to the innocent entrepreneur. This is so, rather than coming from the
entrepreneur’s activities. This brings up the important question of morality of legality? Do
governments have the moral authority at all, such that if what is done is illegal then that makes
it immoral as well?
According to Narveson (n.d.), humans must also consider the bearing of their activities on
matters of general concern. In that case, are humans likely to be supporting or promoting
injustice on innocent people by their unwitting search for profits? Clearly, that should not be,
and sincerely, humans conceivably could be. Humans really must worry about such things, and
among the most interesting of these have to do with the support of evil regimes. What are the
right principles here? Other suggestions have to do with poverty in third world countries. Might
humans be unfairly exploiting those poor people, asked Narveson (n.d.)? Or even interfering
with their freedom? Then there is the problem of differing customs, as some countries have
bribery as the standard method of getting things done in the foreign country in question. Should
humans engage in such corrupt practices or not? No, not at all.
Narveson (n.d.) saw many people thinking that when business is done with foreign firms, these
organizations are open to tricky and special questioning, different from what applies to
ordinary domestic organizational transactions. Perhaps they are so regarded for the same
reason that domestic issues having to do with governments are thought special, and people
think that government is very special, therefore, have special sort of authority over everybody.
So, Narveson (n.d.) suggested that perhaps humans must enquire whether governments do
have special kind of moral authority over people, and even well beyond the ambit of business
ethics, which is one of the fundamental questions of political philosophy.
Narveson (n.d.), raised the issue of how it would be difficult trading with evil regimes; among
the major international questions proposed to be asked in the area of trading with evil regimes
are that of whether organizations ought to do business with evil regimes at all? In considering
such questions, however, Narveson (n.d.), advised organizations on the need to recognize at the
outset the important distinction of what is meant by evil regimes and those that are not; his
answer hammered on evil regimes as where the government is evil, but not the people in that
country.
A firm in another country might be perfectly all right, morally and otherwise, even if its
government is damned awful, despite the fact that even that government is democratically
elected. Thus, the question is whether private businesses should be thought of, in effect, as
agents, and therefore, representing their country? Surely the only tolerable answer to be given
is that they are not. They are private agents, acting for their own good and not public agents
acting on behalf of their countries (Narveson, n.d.).
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Sometimes a business will be put in the awkward position of being taken to be representing the
country it originates from, but there is no inherent reason why it should be so taken and
considerable reason why it should normally not be so regarded at all. Instead, it should be taken
that those businesses are just citizens of their home countries, and who are trying to make a
living by supplying the desired products/items to citizens of other countries.
Narveson (n.d.), nevertheless, informed us that even a legitimate question arises whether we
should sometimes deal with the regime itself. Furthermore, he cited Ethiopia as an example of
a government which in 1989 would qualify as an evil regime, where people were starving owing
entirely to the ministrations of its government. Even though people wanted to help them, but
there was no alternative to trying to help those people, except by dealing with the unfortunate
regime. Such regimes may be called the ‘Dilemma of Dealing with Evil’. There are only 2
possibilities, obviously when such problems are encountered:
i. dealing with evil regimes, or
ii. not dealing with them (Narveson, n.d.)
It should be remembered that the discussion is about literally dealing with the regime, rather
than some innocent business operating in its territory. From the above possibilities, there are
two (2) interesting questions here:
i. should organizations refuse to deal with evil regime at all, in order to avoid tainting their own
soul; or rather, to be fair to avoid assisting them in evil? or
ii. do they instead deal with them, on the ground that their becoming dependent will enable
organizations to influence them for the better, as well as that if they do not, then someone else
will?
According to Narveson (n.d.), option (i) seems to assume that the direction of influence will
inevitably be that the evil people will corrupt the good ones, instead of the good ones having
good influence on the evil ones. As an illustration, let us consider the pre-1991 case of the South
African situation where black people there were widely seen as being treated horribly and
shabbily because they were treated unequally, as the blacks got perhaps 1/5 the wages of
whites for similar work.
But even so, if you compare the employed black in South Africa with the employed black in
Uganda, not to mention the unemployed one, who is better off? At least in purely economic
terms, the fact is that black South Africans were better off than most blacks in Africa at that
time. There is, in short, quite a lot to be said for the view that here, as elsewhere, the free market
is better than its alternatives (Narveson, n.d.).
When all is said and done, the difference between free trade with South Africa and no trade may
well be that most or all South Africans, especially the black ones, will be better off given the first
alternative than given the second. This is all by way of urging that one must look at both sides
of important questions, and not just the currently accepted view or the view pushed down our
throats by politicians. One must also reflect that the world is a perpetually surprising and very
complicated place, making it hard to say very much which is very definite about situations like
this.
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URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.105.13149
Narveson (n.d.), mentioned how entrepreneurs have a way of aiding poor countries, by often
doing business with third world and developing countries by establishing manufacturing
facilities there which employ the local labour at far lower hourly rates than prevail back home.
This is obviously good business for the firm and could be highly profitable provided that the
gains from lower labour costs are not outweighed by the higher cost of providing capital and of
shipping one's goods to domestic markets. But many critics mention exploitation, especially
labour unions and the human rights advocates. To attract labour, one must offer more than
one’s potential employees are otherwise able to get. In many cases in the third world, what they
will get otherwise is very little, to be sure.
Nevertheless, the incoming corporation must offer them more than their current low wages.
And since the work would require more sophistication, some training and adjustment (for
example), are normally given by the corporation in addition to offering considerably more than
the going rates. It is still a fraction of what it costs back home, but really, it leaves the local
employee much better off than s/he otherwise would have been.
A study by the International Labor Organization (1973) cited in Narveson (n.d.), showed that
Multi-National Corporations (MNCs) in the third world pay wages, on average, twice as high as
local businesses and offer significantly more fringe benefits, including housing, schools,
hospitals, and health services. Naturally the benefits of employment will generate other
benefits. The employed will now be able to acquire goods and services they could not previously
afford; furthermore, businesses will spring up to attract this new source of gain, and so on.
It certainly looks as though, from the point of view of the locals, foreign investment is good for
them. True, the profits will go to the owners of the foreign corporation; but if there are no
profits, the foreign company would not come at all. Their profits are the price of the benefits
they get, but many local people do benefit as well; it is worth it, from their point of view.
Also, from the point of view of the consumers back in the entrepreneur’s home country, the
lower labour costs in the foreign nation, will enable people in the country to which the goods
are sent to acquire those products at lower prices. The above point is not only an important
advantage, but it is, in a sense, the whole point of an economic system; to increase the well- being of people by enabling them to have more for the same outlay of labour (Narveson, n.d.).
Even in this economic achievement, many people still complain that competition from the
products of low-paid foreign labour will, no doubt, displace people from working in similar
industries at the entrepreneur’s home. This is discouraging and disheartening, as pioneer
classical economists, for instance J.S. Mill, settled this issue once and for all, however, some still
think that such developments are bad for the economy. Mill combined economics and
philosophy and believed in a moral theory, utilitarianism – actions leading to people’s
happiness are right and those which lead to suffering are wrong (Segal reviewed by Rasure,
2021).
Last, but the least, Narveson (n.d.) drew our attention to custom and respect from the local
country where business is taken to. There are other ways in which going along with local
customs has no such structure and no such side effects. However, quite the reverse, in fact may
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be the case. If the locals do things differently in ways that bring no harm to anyone, then when
you do not go along with them whilst in their country, is a simple denial of respect for those
people on your part (Narveson, n.d.).
People have their pride, and they have roots too. If you are going to deal with them, then it
behoves on you as a reasonable citizen of the world to do what is supposed to be done. Narveson
(n.d.), suggests that if the custom is to squat around the fire, eating the food with your fingers
as they do, then you show that you do not have contempt for the people.
Besides, this is all fun, as you do as the Romans do becomes a good rule, so long as the practices
of the Romans are not demonstrably deleterious for some of those concerned. The Romans
probably do want to get things done, after all. However, if their practices demonstrably make it
more difficult to get those things done, then they have reason to change, and quite possibly the
appearance on the scene with your superior methods might provide just the impetus required.
In short, you must use your judgment, and it is not that simple (Narveson n.d.).
The above lengthy illustrations have been given to drum home that it is no different if the
company was already in the country when the authoritarian regime took power or when the
company wanting to do business in the country got into the scene when the authoritarian
regime was already there. The fact is that an evil regime does not care, whether the foreign
organization existed before it took power, or it existed before the foreign company came to the
scene.
CONCLUSION
The environment of countries where multi-national companies carry out business is very
important for comfort and successful operation of their activities. Evil regimes should not be
allowed to dictate how the foreign company’s policy should be, regarding the entrepreneur’s
new environment. Apart from the organization given employment to the citizenry in the new
environment, the entrepreneur also stands to gain some profits from his/her endeavours, so it
is a win-win situation.
The illustrations in the above chapters/headings give enough evidence that it is no different if
the company was already in the country when the authoritarian regime took power or when
the company wanting to do business in the country got into the scene when the authoritarian
regime was already there. One thing that has come out from the discussions is that the
environment should be maintained, sustained and preserved by all for the citizenry to get the
maximum resources from it.
Unions and professional associations should have a well-thought vision of fitting into the
scheme of the organization for the enablement of changing the culture of the organization to
keep the environment clean and green (Holland, 2019). Again, they must make sure the
business environment is peaceful and harmonious for the development of their nation.
Borowiec, Harper and Garragan (2022) advocated a technological approach, using deep
learning and artificial intelligence, which have always been touted as solution to decarbonize
many industries. However, they question the carbon cost generated by the technological
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The Role of Unions and Professional Associations. Would Evil Regimes Affect Such a Society? European Journal of Applied Sciences, 10(5). 191-206.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/aivp.105.13149
panacea during operation; this needs more research to make it feasible & sustainable for saving
the environment from deterioration and destruction through pollution. Furthermore, Penketh
(2021) mentioned the declaration from COP26, which is to ensure global warming does not go
beyond 1.5oC by 2100. These are good and should be pursued by organizations globally, so that
the environment is kept clean and safe for future generation.
The sustenance of the environment, therefore, should be the concern of all, using organizational
teams through effective use of eco-friendly digital services with a clear strategy and objectives
(Holland, 2011). Additionally, the right communication amongst members of these teams with
regular evaluation of the progress should also be incorporated (Maes & Hootegem, 2011;
Holland, 2019; Borowiec et al., 2022).
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